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Washington University Experience | VASCULAR | Hypoxia-Ischemia, adult | Cerebellum | 1A0 Case 1 History
Case 1 History ---- The patient was a 47 year old woman who was in a persistent vegetative state following a drug overdose at the age of 32 with subsequent anoxic encephalopathy. She was maintained on enteral feedings and was not ventilator dependent. On 11/20 she developed acute respiratory distress. EMS was unsuccessful in intubating her; she was transferred to the ER at BJH where she was successfully intubated. Routine chest radiographs and laboratory studies showed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and a white blood cell count of 28,200 cells/cc. Head computed tomography showed diffuse cerebral atrophy without acute abnormalities. She was started on empirical Clindamycin, Vancomycin and Imipenem therapy for suspected aspiration pneumonia. She died the day after admission. ---- At autopsy her brain weighed 560g. The cerebellar hemispheres and vermis were shrunken and sclerotic.
